Friday In Vienna
We slept amazingly well even with some street noise. Breakfast, which was included in the price of our room was more than I actually expected. I feasted on a wonderful dark bread and several varieties of cheese as well as sliced tomatoes and cucumbers. I had hot milk with my coffee and there was no issue having as much coffee as we wanted.
Next we were off to the Secession Museum, mostly to see the Beethoven Frieze. This is not a very large museum and other than the Frieze and exhibits connected to its restoration; the building is the real thing to see. We were able to walk there easily by cutting through the large subway station. We stopped for a light lunch afterwards. I once again had a salad that tasted like the lettuce had just been picked. It was topped with chicken that was perfectly cooked. This is salad heaven.
I then rested in the room while Neal went to get the train tickets for the rest of the trip. My back had been giving me trouble and I decided to give it the afternoon off.
We were back at Huth for dinner. I actually ate fried chicken. I kept seeing people eat it in various places. To me, good fried chicken is a very special treat and ordinary fried chicken is a total waste of calories. This was wonderful; Neal kindly helped me finish it. Of course I had another salad. This one included the largest pickled beans I had ever seen. Can you tell I love the food here?
We walked for a while and we were still early for our concert. We stopped for coffee. I had coffee with ice cubes. Now I am truly in my element. I know I can have white wine and coffee with ice cubes and it is not insulting to anyone.
We went to a Mozart concert at The Mozart House. Now I need to say that Mozart was like George Washington, he slept everywhere. He had lived here for about 6 weeks. I don’t think he was a good tenant. I imagine lots of late night parties and heavy drinking. Not to mention all that loud music. The very small concert hall was a place he enjoyed playing. The space was kind of round and maybe 30 feet in diameter. The stage held 4 musicians. We, the audience played. They played a mix of things with the second have being all Mozart. They closed with an encore of two waltzes by guess who?
Of course we had champagne but instead of a crowded bar we were served in the romantic court yard. This added to a perfect last night in Vienna.
Next we were headed for Café Central. We knew it closed at 10:00 but it was just 9:00 so we thought we had plenty of time. We approached a group of about 10 young women wearing regional dress. We asked them what they were doing and they told us it was a party for the bride and if we gave them 2 Euros they would sing a song from a list of songs. I think the bride was actually supposed to sing along. I chose I Will Survive and they belted it out with no printed words. What a hoot. I asked them what they were raising the money for and they said for drinking.
A little further, by now we were lost, we heard music coming from a church and we went in. We were told it was a special night that happened once a year when all the churches were open very late and played music. What a treat. We did hear music coming from other churches as we wandered, hopefully in the direction of Café Central.
At last we found it. It was 20 minutes to 10 and we were made to understand that they would close exactly on time. We decided to order one more ice coffee for the road, with ice cream. They did stop serving at 10 and the piano player stopped at 10 but people were allowed to finish their food and drinks.
We then started our long walk home and we did not get lost.
The noise below our window was a bit louder but we still fell sound asleep very quickly.
Neal just asked me to mention Maria. She is the person who hosts the breakfast and keeps the coffee flowing. She also helped Neal find where to get the train tickets. She struck me with a fountain of German at breakfast and I think I looked stunned. She said I looked like I should have been able to understand. I guess I look somewhat like the locals.